In Past Show

About Hunt Slonem

Artist and collector Hunt Slonem is best known for huge Neo-Expressionist oil paintings of tropical birds based on his personal aviary. His lavishly colored canvases are populated with rows of birds rendered with thick brushstrokes. “I was influenced by Warhol's repetition of soup cans and Marilyn,” Slonem says. “But I'm more interested in doing it in the sense of prayer, with repetition... It's really a form of worship.” According to The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, “This witty Formalist strategy meshes the creatures into the picture plane and sometimes nearly obliterates them as images, but it also suspends and shrouds them in a dim, atmospheric light that is quite beautiful.” Besides the birds, Slonem also paints repetitions of flowers, bunnies, butterflies, as well as portraits, particularly of Abraham Lincoln.

American, b. 1951, Kittery, Maine, United States, based in New York, NY, United States